Pub Rock

It's most notable today, I guess, as the scene that ultimately produced such luminaries as Nick Lowe, Graham Parker (kinda) and Elvis Costello. Searchable records include Brinsley Schwartz's stuff and a lot of the early Stiff Records discog.

1. Ace
2. Bees Make Honey
3. Brinsley Schwarz
4. Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers
5. Dr. Feelgood
6. Ducks Deluxe
7. Eddie and the Hot Rods
8. Eggs over Easy
9. The Kursaal Flyers
10. Roogalator

I've never heard any of these bands.

and we have the wildhearts soon as well.

yipee*

They were a hard rock / bikers band surely?!? Admitedly I'm sure they played a LOT of pubs in their time but....

The origins of pub rock are in the fragmentation of the late 60's/early 70's when folks like N.Lowe, B.Schwartz and the Watt-Roy brothers sidestepped prog and hard rock and went for an American R+B (Chuck Berry, E.Cochran etc) + country-based sound. This hardened up by 73/74 with the Dr. Feelgood debut and the likes of Eggs over Easy and Ducks De Luxe, leading naturally onto an affiliation/crossover with punk (Eddie and The Hot Rods, Graham Parker, Costello). There were also elements of surrealism/comedy mixed in (Kursaals, Kilburn/Dury).

Most of the action took place in boozer venues in the S.East - the epicentre obv was Sarfend.

Didn't Sinx0R in the early days of ILM describe the Blockheads as pub jazz rock? On reflection I think they're more pub jazz funk.

http://www.drhibbert.it/DrHibbert43/9f19_02.jpg

Was "How Long Has This Been Going On" some blue-eyed soul element of pub-rock?

Well, that probably makes at least as much sense as a genre that includes both AC/DC and, say, Cannibal Corpse or somebody.

(REAL American Count Bishops/Rose Tattoo, obviously: ZZ Top, duh!)

Also, as Chuck says, AC/DC and Motorhead were only pub rock in their earlier days. Then they made the tradition to stadium rock I suppose.

Pub rock is a style of Australian rock and roll popular throughout the 1970s and 1980s and still influencing contemporary Australian music today. The term came from the venues at which most of these bands originally played at: inner-suburban pubs (short for the British term public house which is rarely used in Australia in its full form). These often noisy, hot, and crowded establishments were largely frequented by men and women in their 20s, mainly of Anglo-Celtic origin rather than members of Australia's swelling immigrant communities.

It could be argued that the very venues many of the bands played in (pubs), had a major influence on the evolution of their music and sound. The venues were more often than not small and the crowds - often alcohol-fueled - were there for the experience rather than to see a "name band". Thus, an emphasis on simple, rhythm-based songs grew. With the sound in many of the rooms far from ideal for live music, an emphasis on a very loud snare- and kick-drum and driving bass-guitar grew. Guitarists tended to rely on simple, repetitve riffs, rather than more complex solos or counter-melodies. This might explain why, even in studios and larger arenas and stadia, many of the bands who cut their teeth in pubs still relied on an exaggerated drum sound and fairly simple musical arrangements.

A band like Hunters & Collectors, for example, saw their sound harden from their arty origins (which included a brass-section, experimental percussion and complex arrangements) to a more straightforward rock sound with emphasis on drums, bass and simple guitar riffs; a sound that more suited the beer barns they were forced to play in over their extensive touring career.

Though Australia has a small population, the sheer number of venues that bands could play in, mainly along the Eastern coast, meant that a band could tour extensively, often playing every night for long periods. This would allow bands such as INXS and Midnight Oil to take their well-honed live skills into large venues in the US and Europe with ease.

Changes to entertainment options - and an audience with a growing musical sophistication - have to an extent seen the end of Aussie Pub Rock as an entity. The advent of dance music and the DJ have taken away the need to squeeze into a pub and see a 4/4 rock band.

Sydney in particular has seen many staple live music venues close, falling victim to increasing rents in gentrified areas; the restrictions on volume caused by an influx of people moving back to city and inner suburbs; and the popularity of the DJ and dance music.

Melbourne, too, has lost venues, including the Continental in Prahran and the Punters Club in Fitzroy, but is considered to be the Australian "home" of live music.

The newer generation of bands that could be considered the followers of the Pub Rock tradition includes: Jet, The Living End, Magic Dirt, You Am I, and Pacifier.

Ironically, every few years it's still possible to catch the likes of Cold Chisel or The Angels , as they reform to cash-in on their older and more affluent core of fans, who pay top-dollar to see these former Pub Rock greats in comfortable and usually seated arenas.

Notable pub rock bands:
Cold Chisel
Hunters and Collectors
INXS
Rose Tatoo
The Angels
Hoodoo Gurus
AC/DC

nb: this trend may have been correlated to my love for the pub.

I'm not sure what you'd call WPA - if they're pub rock, so are The Pogues. Celtic Pub Rock perhaps?

http://www.thefauves.com/disco.htm

I think the predicament was actually far larger and far more fundamental than that.

Rock music (as distinct from pop) at the time was largely dominated by a relatively small number of bands who could actually fill stadia (what Dadaismus has rightly described on a couple of other threads as "The Rock Aristocracy") and there was relatively little middle-ground between playing huge stadia and small pubs.

Consequently the average new band was painfully aware that there was very little chance for them to ever graduate from the "pub circuit" to anything bigger and a huge bottle-neck developed.

Let's not forget that (just for example) before signing to Stiff Records, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Dave Edmunds, Lew Lewis, Nick Lowe etc. etc. had all approached and either been rejected or dropped by all the major record labels!

Hence also why there came to be so much resentment of "The Rock Aristocracy" and why so many people from the pub scene were prepared to leap on board the Punk bandwagon when it came along and presented an opportunity for them to break through to a larger audience.

.... and prior to that they used to appear on stage wearing dirty "flasher" macs and sing songs about wanking and making obscene phone calls!

They called their first EP "Packet Of Three" (do condoms still come in packets of three, or do I need to explain that reference to our younger readers?!?); it was produced by John Cale; released by Mark ("Sniffing Glue" / "Alternative TV") Perry and had a picture on the front cover that showed Glenn Tilbrook leaping into the air (pogoing?) while the rest of the band (all of whom appear to be wearing drainpipe jeans and DM's incidentally - which of course was still extremely unusual in July 1977) and playing against what looked like the wall of a factory with a Union Jack hung on it.

http://www.uksqueeze.freeserve.co.uk/images/dfc01-a1.jpg

It's almost as if they couldn't decide which bandwagon to jump on first!

I have been listening to 2-4-6-8 Motorway by Tom Robinson Band nonstop for the past 24 hours. Give me more proto-punk fist pumping foot stomping pub rock! Where is Alex in NYC when you need him??

Is oi! punk pub rock?

no

it's pub rock punk

le pub rock francaise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owUbQy74qDY